‘I lost everything, nobody believed me’: The full story of abuse allegations at St John Ambulance

It happened in the back of ambulances, during first aid duties at sports matches, on weekend trips away, during branch meetings and wherever young teenage boys could be cornered alone.

One by one, more men came forward with their stories of how they alleged they had been sexually abused as children in St John Ambulance.

A major report, published on Thursday, has found the voluntary first aid organisation failed to investigate concerns and suspicions children were at risk of abuse, in part to protect its reputation.

More than 15 men are alleged to have been sexually abused as children by one former senior figure in the organisation, who held a position of authority for decades.

‘I lost everything, nobody believed me’: The full story of abuse allegations at St John Ambulance

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The independent report by Dr Geoffrey Shannon SC, one of the country’s leading child law experts, has found there was a “deep organisational awareness” at the time that children were potentially at risk from the man.

The report said a past culture of deference to rank meant senior officers could operate with “impunity”, which Dr Shannon said “may have unwittingly facilitated predatory activities”.

There was a failure to investigate the suspected sexual abuse and grooming of children for decades, despite “well established” awareness of “specific threats to child safety” posed by the former senior figure by the early 1990s.

St John Ambulance “could have, and should have, investigated suspicions and complaints of serious misconduct and victimisation”, the report said.

The inquiry was commissioned in response to reporting by The Irish Times, that revealed several men had allegedly been sexually abused by the former senior figure in the organisation’s Old Kilmainham division in south inner city Dublin.

The man, now in his late 80s, was a member of the organisation from the 1950s until about 2000, leaving after one survivor reported the alleged abuse in the late 1990s.

Tusla has deemed child sex abuse allegations made against the man to be “founded” following a statutory investigation by the child and family agency in recent years.

After more than a year and a half of work, Dr Shannon, a former Government rapporteur on child protection, sent a scathing report to the board of St John Ambulance last November.

The report found a desire in St John Ambulance to protect its reputation led to a “paralysis” in responding to serious complaints. This fear of taking action created an “organisational dysfunctionality in the management of suspected or known risks” to children, Dr Shannon wrote.

The historical abuse allegations largely related to the former senior figure who was involved in running the Old Kilmainham division.

Dr Shannon’s report found there was a “culture of impunity from accountability” in the now-shut division, which had operated “with an unusually high degree of autonomy”.

The organisation, which traces its history back to treating wounded during the 1916 Easter Rising, is best known for providing first aid at sporting matches and events.

The former senior figure is alleged to have groomed youth members – known as cadets – by bringing them on unofficial weekend trips away, supplying alcohol and providing teenage boys with part-time work.

The abuse is alleged to have often started under the guise of conducting first aid demonstrations on boys, which the report said was used as a “shield against potential scrutiny”.

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For Mick Finnegan (40), the abuse began in the mid-1990s when he was about 14, during first aid duty at Dublin Zoo with the senior figure and continued for several years.

“He would say, the most accurate way of taking a pulse in the femoral artery, up in the crease of the groin and that’s how it started. Then he’d force you to masturbate him and then he’d masturbate you.”

Fighting for the organisation to be held accountable for its failure to protect him and other children had been “exhausting”, he said. “I lost everything, nobody believed me,” he told The Irish Times.

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For the last two decades the organisation has feared it could one day face a reckoning over the historical sexual abuse of children and cadets.

As far back as 2003 a booklet made to celebrate the organisation’s centenary airbrushed the senior figure from Old Kilmainham out of a photo of officers, with an empty black space left where he had been seated.

A wall of silence successfully kept the organisation’s secret for years, but the first crack emerged 2½ years ago.

On August 17th, 2020, The Irish Times published a story – following months of investigation – that detailed historical abuse in the voluntary organisation.

Three survivors, Finnegan, Paul Mulholland and Martin Hoey spoke publicly in the article for the first time about being abused by the former senior figure.

As more survivors came forward in the weeks afterwards, both Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman and Tusla began to push the organisation to commission an independent review into past abuse.

In early December 2020, O’Gorman logged on to a virtual meeting with John Hughes, St John Ambulance commissioner, and David Strahan, chair of its board.

Following some initial problems attendees had connecting to the call, St John Ambulance outlined that to its knowledge the alleged historical abuse related to one former officer.

It committed to appoint an expert to conduct a review, with Dr Shannon later chosen to carry out the work.

During the meeting with the Minister the organisation stressed Tusla had examined its current safeguarding policies and “found no issues for improvement”.

It said the “general view” among volunteers was there had been “no knowledge” of the sexual abuse in the organisation in the past, according to minutes of the meeting.

Dr Shannon’s report, which ran to more than 300 pages, concluded otherwise.

It was his belief that there were “significant suspicions” at the time that the Old Kilmainham division posed potential serious threats to children.

The report said “identical accounts” were provided in numerous interviews of informal warnings being given to cadets about the alleged abuser, but these were “often largely inadequate”.

Some members told the investigation they had been involved in conversations about how to deal with the threat posed by the alleged perpetrator at the time.

The report said it appeared St John Ambulance “feared litigation and damage to the organisation’s reputation if some intervention was undertaken”.

The main response to child protection concerns or fears was “inaction”, the report said.

This was often based on a “misguided belief” that a criminal standard of proof was needed before the organisation could intervene to remove a volunteer, it said.

While most of the organisation’s current leadership denied any knowledge of past warnings, two conceded to previously warning youth members about the alleged abuser.

The leadership figures stated the extent of these warnings were that the man was an “unpleasant individual”.

Dr Shannon concluded that informal warnings were “routinely” given to young male cadets about the alleged perpetrator, by both peers and senior ranking officers.

He said this “reflected a deep organisational awareness” of the potential risk to children in St John Ambulance at the time.

The testimony of survivors was “consistent” in its descriptions of abuse, the report said. Several men described “being routinely sexually assaulted” during branch meetings and at first aid duties, it said.

In one incident the alleged abuser was “discovered in a locked ambulance with some male cadets”. An excuse by the man that he had been providing first aid training “was widely dismissed as not credible”, the report said.

There was “widespread awareness and knowledge” within the organisation of this incident, which one interviewee said had set off “alarm bells”.

A number of people interviewed by Dr Shannon recalled rumours about the individual circulating as early as the late 1960s and early 1970s.

[ Current failings: Culture in St John Ambulance poses ‘ongoing threat’ to child protection ]

The report concluded that it was clear rumours about the alleged perpetrator were “well established” internally by the early 1990s.

Despite this awareness of the threat, the report was “unable to find documentary evidence relating to any formal investigation”, even after one survivor, Finnegan, reported being sexually abused.

It appeared the alleged abuser was pressured to resign from the organisation about 2000, on foot of the complaint.

Dr Shannon noted his “disappointment at the wholly inadequate documentary evidence that was made available” about the Old Kilmainham division.

When the organisation’s leadership was questioned about the former division, they “claimed not to have any knowledge” about how the unit was managed, he said.

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For Mulholland (46), who joined the Old Kilmainham division when he was 15 in 1992, the abuse first took place in the alleged perpetrator’s home, before a first aid course in the organisation’s Leeson Street head office.

“All I wanted St John Ambulance to ever do and say is, we’re sorry this happened to you and we promise that this will never happen to another child. They never did,” he said.

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The report found the organisation’s structures in the past appeared to have “facilitated” children being groomed and abused.

A military-like hierarchy that prioritised rank and status created a dysfunction in governance and oversight, which impacted on its ability “to operate a safe and responsive organisation”.

The chain-of-command system was “wholly inappropriate” when it came to child protection, as it failed to consider individuals high up in the hierarchy “may be implicated” in abuse, the report said.

This weak accountability system could “effectively shield” individuals suspected of serious wrongdoing, it said.

Complaints of serious misconduct were often dealt with using “highly informal” means, in contrast to the organisation’s strict rules on paper.

The report said formal discipline seemed to focus on “materially insignificant” issues, such as breaches of uniform, while “ignoring or avoiding substantively serious matters”.

The organisation often dealt with complaints through an internal “court of inquiry” process.

These weak accountability structures allowed senior figures to create “fiefdoms” which enabled the “arbitrary and opportunistic exercise of power”, Dr Shannon found.

Several current and former members spoke about senior officers exploiting the deference to rank to avoid basic disciplinary measures, the report said.

St John Ambulance was “structurally inhibited from holding senior-ranking members to account for wrongdoing”, giving them “a high degree of impunity”, the report concluded.

The culture of deference towards rank and status led to “the reputation of the organisation itself being prioritised over the safety and welfare of young people”.

The organisation failed to investigate “suspicions or knowledge of child protection risks, despite potential risks being highly visible”, it said.

Dr Shannon said it was not acceptable “to defend the failures at a systemic level” of previous decades, by referencing the culture of the time. He said the organisation “should be honest about how its structures facilitated grooming and predatory behaviour”.

Correspondence from Tusla, seen by The Irish Times, shows the State agency previously played down concerns abuse had been widespread.

Minister of State Anne Rabbitte had previously pursued the issue while Fianna Fáil spokeswoman for children in Opposition. She privately raised concerns with then-minister for children Katherine Zappone, after meeting with Finnegan, Hoey and Mulholland.

In a December 5th, 2019 letter, Bernard Gloster, then-Tusla chief executive, wrote there was “no evidence of systemic or organisational abuse” within St John Ambulance.

Gloster told Rabbitte he had also been advised “there are no current concerns with respect to St John Ambulance”.

In the weeks after the story first broke in The Irish Times, Tusla officials met St John Ambulance in September 2020.

A September 21st letter from Tusla following the meeting, told the voluntary body it did not have “any concerns” with its management of past abuse allegations.

An internal Department of Children briefing written some weeks later said Tusla had advised “that they are satisfied that the organisation has adequate safeguarding measures in place”.

That was not a conclusion shared by Dr Shannon following his investigation.

The senior counsel, who has recently been nominated for appointment as a Circuit Court judge, found a culture resistant to change posed an “ongoing threat” to the organisation keeping children safe.

The report revealed there had been several concerning incidents of alleged child abuse and child protection cases in recent years.

In one case, the report said an adult member had “allegedly performed oral sex on a minor cadet”, and sent “inappropriate text messages” to a different youth member.

The report raised serious concerns about the lack of supervision and “inappropriate behaviour” on camping trips run by St John Ambulance. In one case, a cadet over 18 years of age “asked two other cadets to perform oral sex”, it said.

Dr Shannon said a “lack of transparency and accountability” over cadet divisions posed a risk of “unsafe child protection practices”.

Within significant parts of the organisation’s hierarchy there was a “pervasive denial about past failures”, as well as complacency about current vulnerabilities, he wrote.

A continued deference to rank and status was posing an “ongoing threat to the implementation of robust and effective child protection systems and practices”, he said.

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For Mark Pender (41), who joined the voluntary organisation aged 15 in 1995, the alleged abuse also occurred when he was on first aid duty, at locations like Lansdowne Road Stadium.

The alleged abuse has had a lifelong impact. “It has affected me in how I raise my daughter, I don’t trust many people. It put my life at a halt at that age as a child,” he said.

Pender said he had never accepted the organisation’s argument that it was not aware of the abuse at the time. “They well knew,” he said.

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The report found a desire to protect the organisation’s reputation was “a strong driving force” in how it responded to complaints and suspicions of grooming and abuse of children.

A fear of the organisation being sued by the alleged abuser contributed to a failure to act, with Dr Shannon noting it appeared no independent legal advice had been sought on the matter.

When it came to avoiding organisational responsibility, some interviewees said this was due to a fear “of ruinous financial consequences” and reputational damage.

Internal records from an executive meeting in 2013 noted there was “concern for exposure” to legal claims for compensation from alleged victims. Minutes of the meeting also noted concern about the “possibility of other people coming to light at this time”.

Those fears about the organisation’s legal exposure recorded a decade ago were well placed.

St John Ambulance is now facing the prospect of paying anything from hundreds of thousands up to millions of euro in settlements to survivors taking civil cases.

Six alleged victims are currently taking High Court cases against the organisation over alleged abuse by the former senior figure, with the potential for many more to seek compensation.

The organisation, represented by Mason Hayes & Curran, does not have a wealth of resources to draw on to cover extensive legal costs or settlements in the fallout of the controversy, which often run to six-figure sums in child abuse cases.

It took in less than €800,000 in income and reported €1.2 million in members’ funds in 2021, according to financial accounts approved late last year.

David Coleman, of Coleman Legal LLP, who is representing five of the survivors, said he expected more men would likely seek redress following Dr Shannon’s report, as other victims came forward.

A court date in the longest-running civil claim, filed by Finnegan in 2017, is due to be sought shortly, court records show. Coleman said the length of time it had taken to get to that point spoke “volumes” about the organisation’s approach to defending the cases.

Dr Shannon’s report said the organisation’s response to suspected wrongdoing was “inadequate” and designed to protect the interests of the organisation, rather than its members.

This included an effort to “avoid formal acknowledgement of wrongdoing within the organisation”.

The report said many members and abuse survivors described a “deep frustration” with what they felt were “repeated denials” from the organisation that children had been abused in the past.

It found St John Ambulance “failed in the past to undertake any meaningful investigation into known or suspected threats to children”.

“Warnings were ignored or not taken sufficiently serious in the past, nor were reports made to the appropriate authorities,” it said. Dr Shannon said this amounted to a “serious failure” of its ethical duty to the children in its care.

Many members had attributed the previous failure to act on prior concerns about the alleged perpetrator to a lack of “hard evidence”.

Dr Shannon said it was “difficult to imagine how hard evidence could be found if there was no attempt to investigate suspicions properly”.

The organisation said it co-operated with a criminal investigation when Finnegan reported his abuse to gardaí in 2001, but did not believe it should carry out a parallel inquiry.

A written statement from a senior officer to gardaí said the organisation “had not had any other reports” of alleged abuse by the former senior figure. Although the statement added “there have been innuendos relating to him from time to time”.

Minutes of a St John Ambulance executive meeting from the period stated while the alleged perpetrator was “on a leave of absence”, he had “been seen in uniform”. The meeting heard that as this “could not be definitely confirmed” no action would be taken.

Internal notes later stated the alleged perpetrator was recorded as “gone since 2002 for certain”.

Following that initial Garda investigation, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) opted against prosecuting the former volunteer.

In recent years gardaí have submitted files to the DPP in three further cases where men made criminal complaints against the man, but in each case the State prosecutor opted not to pursue charges.

At least two further alleged victims of historical child sex abuse have made complaints to gardaí in recent months, with those investigations ongoing.

While Dr Shannon said the majority of testimony related to alleged abuse by the senior figure in Old Kilmainham, some evidence suggested “there may have been more than one individual engaged in potential grooming or abuse in the pre-2001 period”.

Nearly all survivors and several volunteers said the failure to take action on complaints and suspicions of child sex abuse amounted to a “cover-up”.

The report said allegations that abuse was covered up were “extremely difficult to verify due to the poor record keeping” by St John Ambulance during the period in question.

Dr Shannon said he was able to “partially corroborate” a claim from Finnegan that he was offered an envelope of cash by a member of the organisation after formally reporting his abuse.

One member interviewed said the “protection of the brigade’s name” was paramount and the thought of abuse revelations “getting out at that time would have been horrendous”.

Another volunteer interviewed said the organisation “just didn’t want the bad publicity” and so were “protecting themselves rather than their members”.

Several members who spoke to Dr Shannon said there was a suspicion that the alleged perpetrator was homosexual, which he said some appeared incorrectly to “conflate” with paedophilia.

The report said some volunteers “may have individually failed to act on suspicions of threats to children because they were not interested in interrogating sexual orientation, which they conflated with paedophilic tendencies”.

The report concluded that there had been a failure to investigate or act on known risks to children posed by the alleged perpetrator, due to weak systems for holding officers to account and a desire to protect the reputation of the organisation.

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As the damning findings of the independent report ripple through the organisation, focus is likely to turn to questions of fallout, and potentially survival.

Traditionally strongest in cities like Dublin and Cork, volunteers recall the high water mark of the organisation as providing first aid during the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979, as well as previous All-Ireland final days in Croke Park.

Celebrating its centenary in Ireland 20 years ago, the organisation had 1,200 members, which has fallen to about 900 in recent years, about half of whom are cadets.

Last summer the organisation had to scale back first aid services it ran in Dublin Zoo, due to a lack of available volunteers during the week.

Its volunteers are still a regular feature providing first aid at Ireland rugby and football matches in the Aviva Stadium and GAA matches in Croke Park.

On St Patrick’s Day, as the leadership of St John Ambulance grapples with the fallout of the Shannon report, scores of its members will be posted along the parade route in Dublin city centre.

The organisation has increasingly been in the crosshairs politically over the historical abuse, with that scrutiny now likely to ramp up significantly.

Independent Senator Lynn Ruane was the first to raise the controversy publicly in the Oireachtas. In a Seanad speech in late 2020 she said it appeared past abuse had been “tolerated” within the organisation and called for an inquiry.

In the Dáil, Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews also routinely criticised the GAA, IRFU and FAI for continuing to use St John Ambulance’s first aid services at matches, in light of the abuse allegations.

There had been particularly stringent criticism from nearly all political parties of the lengthy delay in the organisation publishing Dr Shannon’s report.

Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty, one of the strongest critics, described the decision to publish the report on the eve of St Patrick’s Day when nearly all Ministers were abroad as “cynical”.

The timing of its publication, more than 100 days after Dr Shannon submitted his report to the organisation’s board, was “deplorable”, she said.

It is understood the FAI is considering seeking a meeting with St John Ambulance to discuss the findings of the Shannon report.

A spokesman for the Aviva Stadium previously said while it was aware of the historical abuse allegations, it had been “assured” by St John Ambulance that “all the necessary safeguards” were currently in place.

However, the report’s criticisms of current child protection standards and revelations of cases of contemporary alleged abuse in recent years, are likely to raise major questions.

St John Ambulance issued an “unreserved apology” to survivors on Thursday, accepting its structures “facilitated” the grooming and abuse in the past.

“We are sincerely sorry for the hurt that was caused to you, your families and your friends, by the failings of our organisation … You have been listened to and are believed,” David Strahan, board chairman, told survivors.

He said the organisation accepted all recommendations for reforms made by Dr Shannon and would “leave no stone unturned” introducing the required changes.

For Finnegan, the survivor who has led the campaign to highlight past abuse in St John Ambulance, the report from Dr Shannon was closure. “It’s not about trying to blame people, it’s about accountability,” he said.